Talpa de Allende

The Virgin of Talpa is barely 38 centimetres tall, made of corn paste and cloth in the sixteenth century, and she is one of the three great pilgrimage images of western Mexico - the "sisters" of Zapopan and San Juan de los Lagos. Her basilica, a twin-towered church in warm stone, stands over a plaza in a sierra valley at about 1,200 metres, and for much of the year Talpa's business is receiving those who walked: pilgrims come on foot along mountain routes from Ameca, Mascota and beyond, in groups with banners and support trucks, arriving footsore to the basilica steps in numbers that swell to hundreds of thousands around the main feasts. The town supports them accordingly - guesthouses, kitchens, rosary and candle stalls, and the local specialty of rollos de guayaba, guava paste rolled in sugar, sold in every shop. Between pilgrimages, Talpa is a quiet, handsome mountain town with a small museum of the Virgin, cobbled lanes and forested country around it, including the Cristo Rey lookout and the mining ruins of Cuale.

What you actually see

• The basilica - the twin towers and the tiny Virgin within.
• The pilgrim arrivals - walkers reaching the plaza in groups.
• The guava sweets - rollos and dulces in every shop window.
• The sierra setting - forested ridges around the valley.

When to go

Feast periods in March, May, September and October for the pilgrimage in full; other months for a calm mountain town. Roads are best in the dry season.

Honest expectations

At peak feasts the town is overwhelmed - beds vanish and prices climb; day-tripping from Mascota is the fallback. The mountain drive is long and winding from any direction. This is a devotional place first.

Nearby

Mascota's colonial plaza and San Sebastian del Oeste lie on the road toward Puerto Vallarta.